Question

How can we get our toddler to stay in bed?

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My wife is pregnant, so we moved our 23-month-old daughter out of the crib to a 'big bed.' Without the crib to restrain her, she keeps getting up. It seems like we spend half the evening trying to get her settled down! How can we teach such a young child to go to bed and stay there?

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when my daughter was 15 months old we had to get her a toddler bed because she was starting to climb out. the first week was tough.. she can open the doors and would always come out thinking it was fun time.. finally, I tried locking her in her room.. felt like an evil parent for doing it. She would cry for about 10 min the first 2 nights I did this.. but after she realized she couldn't get out of her room she also realized that we were serious about bed time.. Now when we are done with her bath and she is ready for bed, she will actually go get in bed and wait to be tucked in. Very rarely do I hear anything from her the rest of the night..in the morning around 730 I will hear a polite knock on the door and a "Mommy".. letting me know she is ready to get up. Sometimes I go in and she is playing with her toys quietly patiently waiting for the rest of the family to wake up.

First of all, we have boy/girl twins who are now 3 years old. They moved out of their cribs at 2 1/2 years old. We tried the "no eye" contact strategy and the gate strategy. The problem for us is that they shared a room. Not sure about other parents of twins experiences, but our twins are CRAZY :) They feed off of each others energy and are way too silly to take anything seriously. Together, they are a serious force - I'm sure you can imagine! Things actually got better for us when we moved into a bigger house about 3 months ago. They each have their own room now. So my husband takes one and I take the other. We stay in their rooms with them until they fall asleep. It doesn't take long - about 10 or 15 minutes - and it's actually enjoyable cuddle/bonding time. Much much much better now that they're separated. We're now ready to start weaning them from having us stay with them until they fall asleep. Wish us luck!

Wow, I just happened to notice the date when the original question was posted - March 2001!!! What a great topic and incredibly helpful to so many parents out there. I haven't been able to read every single answer here, there are so many, but has anyone tried the "put them back in their bed with no talking or eye contact" strategy with twins? Does it work? My son and daughter are CRAZY :-) They feed off of each others energy and silliness and it makes it twice as difficult to get them to stay in their beds. I have two older sons (not twins - 4 years apart) and never had any issues with getting them to stay in their beds. They just went to bed and went to sleep when it was bedtime.
Also, does anyone have an opinion on what time they should go to bed? Before their big boy/girl beds when they were still in their cribs, we started the bed time routine at 7 and then finished it up at 7:30 so that we were lights out and door closed by 7:30ish. Thoughts?

on a lighter note are you not expecting too much of a 23 month baby? Babies of this age are very curious they love to explore and see things.. I would advise you to shift her back to the crib or get a high chair for her.. it will help you and the child both... I recently saw on fb that a brand is giving good discount too.. have a look may be this could help you http://babeezworld.com/shop/index.php/chicco-polly-magic-highchair-baby-sketching.html

Its hard I tried the super nanny method for three nights in a row, but it was just a game to her. Then I went and bought a baby gate and she stood there looking out screaming and crying then finally I just shut the door I didn't want to do that but it works and for my piece of mind I reopen it after she has fallen asleep. :) btw she has a night light and jewels lullabys and she is sleeping 10 min or less

Oh my gosh after reading all of these posts I honestly feel a lot better about the reoccuring bedtime dilemma that I face with my 2 & 1/2 year old son. I have felt like such a failure of a parent because ever since we put him in a toddler bed (he's been in one since october) bedtime has become a battle which ends up in my son throwing full fledged tantrums and on more than one occassion me in tears. I will try some of the techniques posted on here and hope something will work so night time can become more of a relaxing time and less of a mess.

YES!! After 1hour 30 minutes my 23 month old has finally given in and stayed in bed!!!! I won!! Listen to all the advise given about persistence and being stern. I did exactly that and he has finally gone off to sleep! Until Today things were going great in his big boys bed. Let's hope I can stay in control! Keep up the good work mummy's and daddy's!!

We currently lay with our 34month old until she falls asleep. She throws a fit if we even sit at the end of the bed, however bedtime is taking up to two hours as she tosses and turns. She doesn't try to get out of her bed, but she talks to us and gives us, the I need a drink, go potty, etc. How can we ween her from us in her room with her? Do we do it gradually or all at once and continue to put her back in bed and let her cry?

My 20 month old has been in her big girl bed for a week now. The first 2 nights were fantastic!! Then 2 nights of pure hell. She was up all night and since I work full time and I'm 4 months pregnant, I was about to snap. The last 2 nights have been better. I have been letting her fall asleep with me and then when my husband gets home at 11pm he puts her in her bed and shuts her door. Around 5:30 she wakes up and calls for me. I assure her I'm right across the hall then I leave and keep her door open. I set up a baby gate in the hall and shut the bathroom door so she can only go from her room to mine. So far this has worked. We also taped a piece of paper to her door and each morning she wakes up in her bed she gets to put 2 new stickers on it. She loves stickers so I think it helps. Naps are hard. Yesterday I finally tried letting her lie down in my bed with me and after she fell asleep I left. She slept for an hour and a half. I'm happy with the situation for now but I hate the idea of having to go to bed at 9:00 with her each nite. I end up passing out myself and I'm done. I'm used to having an hour or two to myself each night to clean up, do dishes, pay bills or simply catch an episode of CSI or something. Guess I will have to put those things on hold until the weekend until we get this sleeping down.
Good luck to you all and thanks for all the great advice. I definately am going to try one mommy's idea and get my scent on one of my daughters stuffed animals!!

my son is 2 1/2. He was sleeping through the night at around 3 months (I thought I had the perfect baby), then he got one of those plagiocephaly helmets for two months and started waking up every 30min after that. He only wore it for a couple of months but even to this day I cannot get him to stay in bed. He use to wake up just a couple of times at night, I could walk him back to bed and he would stay...but now he wakes up EVERY hour no matter how tired he is and refuses to sleep in his room alone. He claims hes scared of his room. I have tried everything. Walking him back to his bed ...I did this about 50 times each night and gave up after 4 nights...we had put a gate on his door...He screamed for 4-6 hours each night so that had to stop. Hes very stubborn...like his dad. Im due with our second child next month and I havent gotten a good nights rest since me and my husband went out of town for a few days and left him with my parents. Im pretty desperate for help myself!

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